BBS (2)

Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost

 
⟨Chapter 2⟩
 

Anyhow, in the first place, he could do nothing but go.

He started walking again, while carefully holding a cake box, then Yu Dan glanced back.

It’s not like he didn’t have expectations for ‘just maybe’, but…

The hole was chasing him just like before.

The sight of it approaching, while swallowing the center of the city, looked like something out of some surrealistic movie. The passersby, even though they couldn’t see it, would unconsciously avoid it, but even if they sometimes got swallowed whole, they soon came out as if nothing had happened.

Because they weren’t what it was aiming for.

His forehead was throbbing. It was as if someone put an invisible stamp on him. Though the surrounding scenery was nothing but normal, he couldn’t believe that he was the only one experiencing strange things.

He probably was thoroughly paying a price for meddling.

Yu Dan grumbled as he quickened his steps.

It seemed he came to the right place this time. Was that convenience store that Mia was talking about? While half in doubt, he turned around the corner. He realized he found the place.

Pagoda Tree[1] street.

The place otherwise known as Traditional Street.

The tile roof houses were standing in a row on both sides of the open street. Though there were many trees, the atmosphere was somehow chilly. It was such an atmosphere even while the sight of huddled together antique bookstores, craft shops, hanbok shops, traditional tea houses, cafeterias, etc. was tranquil.

There was such a place in Seoul?

Yu Dan kept looking around as he walked.
According to Mia, it would be easy to find the ‘possessed by supernatural’ like he was now. Indeed, he found it in no time.

A small sign saying ⟨半月堂⟩ [2]

It was a two-story hanok[3] with a somewhat small garden in a traditional style. As a shop that sells and buys antiques, it looked to be just one of many very ordinary buildings on this street. She said the owner of this place, master Baek, was a person who helped people possessed by the supernatural since the old days. There is no way that Mia played a joke, right?

While half-doubtful, he stepped inside. But also, the antique tile roof, the sturdy wooden pillars and shining frames of sliding doors all looked to be at least a few centuries old.
The wooden doors were slightly opened. After he slightly pushed them, they opened softly without the slightest resistance.

Inside was a bit dark.

The first thing to enter his sight were numerous objects.

One side was stacked with books to the ceiling, while various furniture were full of antiques from all corners of the world. Smell of old antiques and old paper. A faint scent of ink. Usually he might have thought it was stinky, but it strangely felt refreshing. As if his windpipe, which was blocked before, was wide open.

He soon realized why this place felt refreshing.

Those things weren’t visible here.

Wherever he went, there were black shapes clumped in every corner. Strange, ever-increasing clumps on the ceiling. Occasional faces sticking to the window to peek. There was none of that here.

Extraordinary.

Yu Dan put the cake box on the table and took a step deeper.

Only then he caught it.

There was someone grumbling in the corner.

“I really can’t live! I almost tripped and fell again! I should just burn them down.”

A middleaged man was grumbling with a blunt face, while glaring at a pile of old books, stacked to the eye level. Wearing a kwaja over jeogori[4] and even holding a fan, he looked like a true bourgeois gentleman.

“Besides, there is insufficient space to place items! Hell, why is it not selling?!”

“Please, give some sensible thought to this question.”

A sharp voice popped out. Deeper, in the tea shop space, squished with the table and chairs, the woman, who was wiping the tea cups, snapped back.

She also, matching the middle-aged man, was not ordinary. Perhaps it was a martial art uniform or employee uniform, well, anyhow, she was wearing clothes as if taken out from a historical drama, and had an antique precious sword hanging at her waist.

As if the pitch black hair was annoying, she had it roughly tied. Even though she was wiping expansive looking tea cups one after one, delicacy couldn’t be found in her movements. And yet she was a young lady with a cold beauty that made you open your eyes wide.

“Is it a 『 Monthly Eastern Painting Magazine 』? Who is going to buy such a yawn-inducing waste pile, which doesn’t even have a name? I would hate even if You said You paid one million won to bring it with You, but instead You paid one million won to sell it! So I’m hearing that older brother[5] is the world’s greatest hogu. Until You dispose of that waste pile, please expect to be served only rice water on all three meals a day.”

While at it, she glared and deep-blue glow raised in her upwards eyes, like that of a cat.

From the looks of it, this middle-aged man got scammed somewhere into buying a pile of outdated magazines. The thing was only gathering dust and truly not selling.

“We are in trouble.”

The girl, who was wiping the floor with a mop, mumbled sadly. The girl, about fourteen or fifteen, was wearing similar clothes to the woman, but with the clear black and white eyes, and plum cheeks, she was very cute.

“『 Monthly Eastern Painting Magazine 』 will never sell. Unnie will never serve uncle a meal and uncle will only drink rice water until he dies from malnutrition. And in the future, we will have to continue to trip and fall over that magazine pile. And before twenty years pass, we will ended up walking with a cane because we broke every bone in our bodies.”

“No.”

The boy, who was wiping the leaves of the pot plant at the window, spoke. His face was extremely similar to the girl, as if they were twins.

“『 Monthly Eastern Painting Magazine 』 will soon sell. Business is all luck. You can’t know what will happen in the very next moment. Even if you call it bad stock that only consumes space, when a related customer appears, it will be bought straight away. Look there. A customer just came. That customer must be very interested in the eastern paintings.”

Yu Dan was flustered because of the sudden downpour of gazes.

Of course, he had no interest in the eastern paintings. He had a complete lack of interest in any art of the world, and even if he had interest, right now was not the time to buy paintings and such things. Before there would be more misunderstandings, he turned his head towards the middle-aged man.

“That, master Baek-nim…?”

“What?”

The man suddenly turned around. A flash passed through his sharp and big eyes.

For a second, his vision roughly shook, and he saw different shapes overlapping with everyone’s appearances.

The middle-aged man was a round ceramic pot.

The young lady was a great snake shrouded in obsidian scales.

The twins were small child-like ginsengs sprouting flowers.

Yu Dan flinched in surprise.

They weren’t human! But even though he had this eye, he couldn’t recognize it. It was not an ordinary ability. That alone was surprising, but they were casually operating a shop while coming into contact with ordinary people?

“Can yokai do this?”

At his mumbling, everyone was startled. The serpent’s eyes suddenly turned sharp.

“Is not a guest that just came in by chance? How did You recognize we aren’t humans? What are You trying to do, punk? Who do You take orders from? You won’t able to reveal our identities very soon!”

Even while she was completely blocked at the front, a terrible energy rose as if she was to pull out and swing her sword at any moment. The twins’ faces turned pale and they stopped her.

“Wait a moment, unnie! It doesn’t seem like he came here with bad intentions!”

“That’s right! He doesn’t even have a weapon!”

“Hold on, let’s see here…”

The middle-aged man suddenly opened his fan and cut in.

“Why is this energy so strong? It’s not an ordinary destiny, this young master-nim. Like this, that…”

He stared into Yu Dan’s left eye and flinched. Yu Dan asked.

“Why? What do you know…?”

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s out of ordinary, eh? Hehe, it isn’t an easy destiny. One, two, three… ten years ago you passed through a big crisis, but it’s probably still not over. You’re walking on thin ice. 涉于春氷. It means stepping and walking on the spring’s thin ice, so you should always practice caution, but being in your prime, you ended up causing an unavoidable incident, eh? A very big incident even. Tsk tsk. It can’t be helped. Let’s see here… You lost your mother in that incident, the father is the only one left. The relationship doesn’t look to be very close, but no matter what, it’s the only remaining family member. You should immediately go find your dad-nim and give your last goodbyes.”

“He is in China, so how…”

He replied without thinking, and then hesitated.

Putting aside for a moment the fact that this brusque man saw through everything he didn’t say, no matter how he looked, what he said was a death sentence.

“What are you talking about?! Are you saying I’m going to die today? Then you’re not even thinking about helping me?”

He couldn’t say he was ever a good person, but if he witnessed someone in danger or harmed, then he would try his best to help them.

Actually, wasn’t it natural as they were yokai?

He didn’t know why that dokkaebi[6] called master Baek had other three yokai under his command, but if it was like this, then his chances of survival grew even slimmer. Because Yu Dan hated them as much as they loathed Yu Dan.

“Goodness! Look at your attitude! Why would we want to help!?”

In particular, that snake spirit was behaving as if she already became sworn enemies with Yu Dan, so master Baek probably would never help, right?

If it was usual, he would turn around without looking back and leave.

However…

As he imagined the aunt, uncle, Mia noona and Su-hyeok hyung staring blankly at his funeral portrait, he couldn’t do it at all.

Yu Dan bowed his head.

“Help… please.”

“I hate it.”

The snake spirit turned her head with a whoosh.

Yu Dan was about to cry. As expected, they didn’t intend to help him from the beginning?

“We were just joking?”

The dokkaebi stepped out again.

“Haa, sister. Do you hate it? If you speak like this, won’t there be a misunderstanding? Of course WE want to help, right? We want to do our best to help. However, the Person, who is the owner of this place, is currently busy.”

Yu Dan was surprised.

“Wait a moment. Mister dokkaebi isn’t master Baek-nim? You’re not the owner here?”

“By no means. I’m just an employee overseeing the store. Anyhow, it’s been a pleasure. Go in peace.”

The middle-aged man simply pushed Yu Dan to go out. Yu Dan was dumbfounded.

“What? Are you just going to kick me out without even listening to my story? You can’t do that, help me! Let me meet the owner!”

“So noisy, huh!”

The snake spirit shook off the twins, who tried to stop her, with all her might, and stepped forward.

“Don’t make a fuss! Do you dare not to know what this place is? No matter what power you have in that eye, if you say one more word, I’ll hack you!”

“What…”

“I say I’ll really hack you!”

Was it a genuine threat? The moment Yu Dan opened his mouth, something flashed in front of his eyes.

Twins screamed.

Sharp light straight up pounced at him. If it went on, it seemed that she would truly cut him in half.

However, he couldn’t step back here. Because when he gets kicked out, that black hole will be waiting. He hated that more than dying here.

“Okay! Do as you please!”

At that moment, something cool touched his cheeks. Even though a sword was flashing, Yu Dan turned his head.

Deeper inside, beyond partition, someone was standing on the stairs leading towards the upper floor. The white silhouette in the darkness looked like a ghost at first.

“I thought it was somehow noisy. So a guest came.”

Everyone froze.

They turned stiff like stone, ceasing all movements. Even the serpent, who pulled out the sword and was attacking recklessly.

“But, it’s not an ordinary guest, eh?”

The hem of white clothes fluttered.

The figure came out from the darkness, and at last he could see him clearly.

Yu Dan’s eyes opened wide.

Ancient white clothes with wide sleeves. A youth with serene atmosphere, and so pale as if in the world of natural colors, he alone was taken out of the light-colored ink painting… No, it was something with an appearance of a youth.

Between the light brown hair, suddenly a pair of thick and pointy ears popped out.

“Fox…?”

“As You can see.”

Not a particularly friendly reply came back.

“The fox straight from legends. A bewitching fox yokai, because I ate humans’ livers[7] and transformed.”

“….”

“So wouldn’t it be better to stop staring? It’s unpleasant.”

“Ah, sorry…”

Yu Dan was embarrassed.

When he looked at this fox, it felt as if the rage he accumulated for over ten years subsided for some reason and his inner self became calm.

Only now did he realize why this place was so different. They were different from yokai he saw until now.

“I understand. There are no things like this at a zoo. But even so, shouldn’t You be a little cautious and make it more of a side-glance?”

The fox yokai stared at him as if he was pathetic.

“The ground You’re stepping on looks very solid, but in reality, it breaks very easily. Enough to break with one wrong marble.”

He lightly flapped his white sleeve. A soft wind touched Yu Dan and his forehead throbbed again.

Yu Dan looked at the old mirror across from him.

At his forehead, where there was nothing just a moment ago, a black brand clearly showed up.

Yu Dan was shocked. The yokai who glanced in his direction were also startled.

“That… A Misfortune Receiver!”

They stepped back and hid, while chaos ensured.

“It’s fine.”

The fox yokai spoke.

“I was a bit shocked by the misfortune, so I ended up chasing it away. But in any case, I have to free you from it, so I can’t chase it away forever. Still, it will take some time until it returns.”

Looking at how calmly he spoke, he seemed to be indeed an expert. Yu Dan lifted his eyes and asked:

“Then, are you master Baek-nim? The owner of this place?”

“I’m Baek Ran[9]. Did you say master-nim? Who uses such a strange title?”

“No, noona…”

“Older sister-nim?”

“Na Mia. Maternal cousin noona.”

At those words, everyone made a strange ‘ah’ sound. From the twins, the boy rejoiced.

“You’re miss Mia’s relative, huh!”

“However, that doesn’t change anything. That crazy girl! I should’ve known that she would bring trouble one day! Cheonho-nim[10]! This punk’s eye is very strange! It’s better not to get close!”

The serpent spirit shouted.

“I’m going to do it, because I know it.”

The fox yokai replied with an unreadable expression. While at it, he stared at Yu Dan, with a face full of curiosity.

Didn’t he say not to stare, because it’s unpleasant, but now he was doing the same? It felt as if his eye was throbbing because of that gaze.

“As expected, the feeling is bad.”

“That’s staring, you know?”

At the fox’s words, he replied sourly and then a thought occurred to him. Looking back, there was that thing.

Yu Dan picked up the cake box, he put on the table a while ago, and stretched it out towards him. The fox asked, as if doubtful.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Eat.”

“Now?”

“While it’s still good?”

“Who? I don’t eat dead things. In particular, I hate things that smell like sugar.”

Yu Dan was about to cry.

“Was it necessary to say that much? I’m done. It can be thrown away.”

“But—“

The instant the fox spoke like this, Yu Dan’s hands suddenly couldn’t move. Was it some sort of magic again?

“But other People here like it, so I’ll gladly accept it, I guess that Person also remembered, eh?”

And for the first time, the fox smiled slightly. It was a soft smile, like a ripple of water appearing and disappearing. Was it there? Was it not?
 
*~*~*
 

[1] Pagoda Tree — Styphnolobium japonicum

[2] ⟨半月堂⟩ — ‘Half Moon Pavilion’

[3] hanok — traditional Korean house. Here, it will refer to a square building with courtyard in the middle.

[4] kwaja over jeogori — jeogori(저그리) is a traditional upper garnet (if you know how hanbok looks like, it’s the shirt part of it). And kwaeja(쾌자) is a long outerwear. As a fun fact, it was a part of military uniform during Joseon dynasty.

[5] older brother — she is using an older, more archaic version of oppa.

[6] dokkaebi — a small spirit or god born from an old object.…. It’s hard to say anything else about them as they’re so widespread that many stories are contradictory.

[7] I ate humans’ livers — can be understood literally, or as taking advantage of someone.

[8] Baek Ran — ‘Baek’ for white, ‘Ran’ for orchid.

[9] Cheon-ho — Heavenly fox

[?] Everyone’s speech tones:

Yu Dan speaks to everyone casually.

Baek Ran speaks to everyone politely.

Snake spirit speaks to everyone (almost always) politely (but she stops to speak politely to Yu Dan from some point).

Dokkaebi speaks to everyone casually.

The girl twin ginseng speaks casually.

The boy twin ginseng speaks politely.
 

Translator’s note: Our main cast is here! Look at them! Aren’t they beautiful? Don’t worry, they just turn more beautiful the more you look.
 

Patron thank you note

Thank you patron, Nobody, please accept this Helianthus angustifolius as a token of my sincere gratitude.

Links to advanced chapter (Patreon & Kofi)

> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibraryKeyTranslations

> Kofi-Euro: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslator

> Kofi-USD: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslatorusd

 

Did you see a mistake? 🐞